1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to machines for automatically placing chips or similar micro-electronic components on printed circuit boards.
2. Summary Of The Prior Art
In the art of assembling micro-electronic components to printed circuit boards, it is desirable to have a transfer mechanism which receives a preselected component from one of a plurality of component sources and places the component onto a common conveyor for transport to a placement head that positions the component on the surface of a printed circuit board. An example of such a component assembly machine is illustrated in commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 299,979 filed Sept. 8, 1981.
In such a component assembly machine, the components can be supplied to the transfer mechanism for positioning in the conveyor by means of a plurality of tape feeders of the type illustrated in commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 665,453 filed Oct. 26, 1984. Also, the components can be retained in separate bulk feeders for supplying individual components to the transfer mechanism.
In either case, the transfer mechanism should contain a plurality of individual transfer units each of which receive components from the supply source and position the components in the conveyor for further downstream processing.